Coffee & Tea

TW and E roasted coffee beans this morning in the "old fashioned popcorn popper" that E and Michelle got for Christmas a couple of years ago.  This coffee bean roasting fun was my Valentine’s Day present!  Weird and fun, typical of TW in its awesomeness. 

E was not really sure this was a good idea.  What if it hurt her popcorn popper?  The beans are prettier green than brown!  Are you sure this is how you are suppose to do this?  hehehe.  I don’t blame her for asking, the whole thing made me a little nervous too.  But, oddly enough, it seems to work. 

We’re going to have peaberry (a favorite of mine) and the beans smell pretty terrific.  I’ll let you know how it tastes in a couple of days.  Apparently after roasting, the beans have to sit.  HMPH!  Oh we’ve got some other kind, besides peaberry and those are prettier – or maybe they just roasted them longer so they are darker? 

**Update** We’ve had three pots of the TW and Kids Popcorn Popper Roasted Coffee (TWKPPRC is how we’ll refer to it from now on, folks) and it’s awesome!  The lighter roasted beans (the first batch) had a really smooth taste.  The really really dark roasted beans was soooo strong, I loved it too!  The medium roasted beans were not my favorite of the three but the 1/2 child raved about it on the way to work this morning.  You can really TASTE the flavor or some such thing was said over and over again.  The word FRESH was also used.  I finally told him to shush up and let me drive in peace and save is rave reviews for TW after work.  So there you have it –  another marshmallowy TW present idea carried out to perfection.  I’m a lucky woman!

Technorati Tags: coffee, coffeeroasting, popcornmethod, peaberry

Click Michelle is talking about the hurricane so I figured I’d take a minute and talk about it from the perspective of the folks in the “flamingo house”. I’m sure you’ll find it educational entertaining.

Last year we had three dog-gone hurricanes up here in Hoggetowne. We’re an hour’s drive from the Gulf and more than that from the Atlantic. We are inland for goodness sakes, we are not suppose to really have to deal with hurricanes. At least that was what I thought being a native of Hugo-land. Ha. Apparently we do have hurricanes because I was without power for several hours during all three. I was also without phone, cell phone and worse yet, INTERNET for many hours during all three. We had no significant damage to the house, which is shocking since we have three dead trees in the yard that the landlord has refused to do anything about. Whatever. It’s his house and if one of those trees takes out something important, like the roof, then I guess he’ll deal with it, won’t he?

Anyway, what troubles us around here the most is the fact that STARBUCKS CLOSES long before the hurricane arrives and they aren’t good about opening during a hurricane. Having no coffee is actually worse than having no internet.

The other problem is, we read. A lot. Not as much as we use the internet but it’s a close second. (or it is when I’m actually able to read, which I’m not, for some reason) It’s really hard to read at 6pm when you’re in the middle of a hurricane, don’t even think about trying when it’s 10pm. Even with the little flashlights we had last year, it was not fun. It was challenging though. Trying to figure out how to hold a cheap 3 for a $1 flashlight under your chin in just the right way as to keep the batteries connected to that metal thingy inside that actually makes the flashlight work, oh yea a huge challenge.

If you’ve been reading my blog regularly, and obviously everyone is, then you know TW tends to give me really wonderful birthday gifts, well last year’s gift is a prime example of that. I got. A. Hurricane Kit. For My Birthday. Yes, a hurricane kit.

Not just any hurricane kit, a DENISE hurricane kit. Since then, we’ve added the truly fabulous (not fabulous tasting, mind you) Wolfgang Puck coffee to the kit. (I keep drinking it without a hurricane in sight though because I’m lazy and sometimes need coffee IMMEDIATELY and TW is not home to make it for me anymore.)

So now I have a special radio so we can listen to KTK and their hurricane coverage. I have a lantern. I have more flashlights in a variety of sizes. I have a small stove and I have a battery operated coffee pot for when the six cans of Wolfgang Puck are gone.

No, there is no water except for that bottle of Ethos Water I told you all I was going to buy months ago. It’s been in the car ever since I purchased it and I’m sure will taste just fine after being boiled in the car all this time. I have no idea if we have food that can be eaten cold and uncooked or easily cooked on the little hurricane stove. Probably we have something. Or the kids won’t eat. Whatever. We have coffee and light with which to read by. That is all we really need here.

For those of you who might need a different kind of hurricane kit or some other sort of hurricane preparedness info, WebMD has that info. Someone should write to Dr Marks though and tell him about Wolfgang Puck. I’m sure he’ll agree that this is important.

Technorati Tags: hurricane_kit, wolfgang_puck_coffee,